He opened his eyes, feeling like he'd heard someone's voice.

He blinked once or twice, his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness, lit only by a faint row of candles reaching off into the distance that did little to illuminate the… cave? Judging by the hard ground beneath him?

Instinctively, he took in a deep breath, sinking into an almost meditative state as he flipped a switch inside of him. For something simple like this, he didn't even need his aria. A familiar burning pain spread throughout his body as his od lurched from its slumber and began to circulate through the latticework of twenty-seven channels carved into his soul, and with a brief effort of will, he directed the energy to his eyes. There wasn't much to do to them; he'd always been blessed with extraordinarily sharp vision, but with just a little bit of prana filling in the conceptual gaps, making them better than they were… his normally burnished amber eyes flashed a bright green for a moment, hidden beneath his eyelids, before he opened his eyes again, and could see.

Reinforcement.

Only after the process was complete did he pause to reflect on what he'd just done, and more importantly how he had learned how to, but he couldn't remember.

He couldn't remember anything, really, besides a name. Shirou.

Whatever concerns this sudden amnesia might have come with were quickly abandoned as he once again took in his surroundings – he was near the edge of a group of people, also beginning to stir, inside of what did indeed appear to be a cave. There were twelve others, four girls and eight other boys. Despite a huge range of body sizes, they all appeared to be around the same age – except for maybe the smallest girl – which would probably be between fifteen and eighteen, if he had to guess, idly noting as he did that he wasn't exactly sure how old he was himself.

Briefly, he felt concern, but his reinforced eyes couldn't detect any signs of serious injury, and they all seemed to be waking up fine, which made him breathe a sigh of relief and relax slightly. Nobody needed to be saved.

Another boy, with wavy brown hair and sleepy looking eyes, broke the oppressive silence first as he blinked owlishly in the darkness, clearly not as capable of night vision as Shirou. "Is someone there, maybe…?" he asked hesitantly.

With the dam broken, everybody else started to pipe up as well, confirming to each other that they were not alone, and taking comfort in that fact. Shortly one of the larger boys, with spiky… silver hair, and somewhat tanned skin, who Shirou took an immediate disliking to for some reason, stood up and declared his intention to follow the candles. Not wanting to be left alone, everybody else followed, with Shirou silently taking up the rear, making sure nobody was left behind and glancing back every so often to make sure they weren't being followed.

It was hard to tell how long they walked for, but eventually, they reached an iron gate, flanked by oil lamps, which slowly swung open as they approached. The relief in the air was almost palpable as everyone surged forward into the fresh night air and took in their new surroundings: they were on top of a moderately sized hill in front of a massive, angular tower that stretched up behind them. Discussion sprung up about the town in the distance, which almost looked like a castle, with its fortified walls, but Shirou was transfixed by a sight which had only drawn a few confused glances from the others. Guarding the door from which they had just emerged were two men, dressed in plate armor – with swords at their waists.

Forged fairly recently, only a couple dozen years ago, by a blacksmith from Altana. Nothing special – mass produced, for the Frontier Army which defends the border of the Aravakian Kingdom, but still of a fairly high quality. Utilitarian blades, which had seen their fair share of combat. Dozens of goblins and orcs had met their end at the bite of these blades, which had passed from owner to owner as the humans that wielded them were likewise slain in turn, until they found their way to the hands of their current owners, distinguished soldiers granted the honor (and relatively safe duty) of guarding the Forbidden Tower, from which new recruits came, since when they had been confined to their sheaths –

A flood of information continued to stream into Shirou's mind, nigh instantaneously, as he learned the entire accumulated history and composition of the swords in front of him. Unconsciously, the blueprints for the swords were stored in –

Unlimited Blade Works.

Shirou let out an audible gasp as suddenly he… not quite remembered, but rediscovered, the link to the pure crystallization of his soul – I am a Sword – and all the accumulated weaponry that lay within, each with their own history – and none of which, in his entire collection of a nigh unlimited amount of blades, both legendary and mundane, had anything to do with a town named –

"Altana…"

"Did you just say something?"

Shirou turned to the owner of the timid voice who had addressed him. A short girl with shoulder length light purple hair and matching purple eyes, wearing a white blouse and a modest knee-length skirt, was standing alone and looking at him nervously. For a moment, looking at her face, Shirou almost remembered someone, another girl with strikingly similar features and demeanor, but the flash of a memory was gone the moment it occurred, leaving behind only a strong protective instinct, almost like that of an older brother.

"Ah, sorry, I just thought of a name for some reason. It's probably nothing," he told her with an attempt at a reassuring smile.

With a bit of a shy smile in response, she responded, "Ah… a name… My name is Shihoru. My first name. Probably. Sorry…"

"Shirou. Pleasure to meet you." He outstretched his hand, which she accepted, looking a little more confident in having found someone to talk to. "But that's not what you said before, is it?" She asked, her brow furrowing slightly in confusion.

Shirou scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly, struggling to figure out how to answer, before an annoying voice pierced through the air, cutting off their conversation and the several others like it that were happening around them. Another girl, with her hair tied into bunches, pranced out from behind the tower, loudly singing something that could only generously be called a song, and when everyone had grown quiet, she introduced herself.

"Hello! Hiya! Welcome to Grimgar! I'm Hiyomu, and I'll be your guide! Kyapeeeeee!" She finished her introduction with an odd squealing noise.

One of the other boys, another tall and muscular one, but this one with a buzz-cut, growled out "The way you talk pisses me off," putting words to what most present were thinking, but the aggression only spurred the newcomer on to more annoying antics as she pretended to be terrified. She let out more squeals and danced around hiding behind others and blatantly teasing the angry boy until the Silver-hair managed to calm him down. Unfortunately, she had little more to say, besides that everybody should follow her.

The path down from the tower and towards the town led the group past what was clearly a graveyard, which seemed to make Shihoru and a few of the others a little uncomfortable, and she walked a little closer next to Shirou in response, but the somber mood was suddenly cut off by a loud gasp from a girl with long auburn hair tied into a braid, who was staring up into the sky. "Oh, moon, you're so crimson red! So beautiful!" She declared in a distinctly country accent. As everyone else followed her gaze, they were met with the unearthly sight of a crescent moon that was indeed a brilliant crimson red. Staring at a moon the color of freshly spilled blood – and he had seen so much blood, for some reason he was sure of that – Shirou couldn't help but clench his fists. He couldn't remember where exactly home was, but something told him that it was a long way away from where he was now.

Hiyomu lead the group of thirteen teenagers into the city, prattling a bit as she went, but she notably mentioned that the city was called Altana, at which Shihoru sent Shirou another questioning glance, which he met with a shrug. During a lull in their guide's rambling, the topic of names was brought up once again by the rest of the group, none of whom seemed to know more than their own names. A smaller boy with messy reddish-brown hair introduced himself as Ranta, insulting the sleepy-eyed boy in the process, who then gave his own name as Haruhiro. A boy with silky, light brown hair was Manato, a boisterous boy with a black hat was Kikkawa, a massive but slightly soft looking boy was Moguzo, and Shirou and Shihoru introduced themselves to the group as well, but Ranta started poking fun at Moguzo's height before anyone else had a chance to speak. Shirou shook his head a little bit at how it seemed the small boy was determined to make people dislike him, as Haruhiro and Moguzo both looked a little off-put by the abrasive boy's mannerisms and Silver-hair expressed his annoyance by intimidating the much smaller boy into silence.

Their short journey ended well inside the town's walls, at a building that looked and smelled like a pub, labeled "Altana Frontier Army Reserve Force Crimson Moon," where Hiyomu dropped them off in the hands of the man behind the bar, introduced as "Bri-chan."

Bri was a man, that was certain, but he had bright green hair. His face was covered in make-up, making his piercingly blue eyes seem to pop, and his lips were either through lipstick, or possibly paint, colored pitch black. His smile was almost predatory, and several of the teens shifted uncomfortably under his stare – especially the boys.

"My name's Brittany, and I'm the commander of the Altana Frontier Army's Reserve Force, called Crimson Moon. You can either call me 'commander' or Bri-chan, but whichever you use, make sure you use it affectionately, you got that? Like a child to his mother." His voice had a purring lilt to it, and every word out of his mouth made Shirou feel distinctly uncomfortable.

It seemed that Silver-hair felt the same way, as he strode forward and without missing a beat, declared with perfect confidence "I don't like fags like you."

In the blink of an eye, Brittany had a knife at the boy's throat. Shirou took a step forward, unconsciously taking in the fact as he added it to his mental treasury that unlike the swords he'd seen previously, this dagger had had only one owner for a very long time, and had tasted quite a bit of blood.

"Oh, I like boys like you," Bri said sensually. "But let me give you a warning: Nobody who calls me a fag tends to live very long afterwards. I'll forgive it just this once, but you'd better not push me. What's your name, kid?"

"Renji." He smirked as he unflinchingly took the blade of the knife in his hand and pushed it off to the side, disregarding the fact that it cut deeply into the flesh at the base of his thumb as he did so. "And it's not in my nature to back down to threats. Now tell me, what is this Frontier Army? Why am I here?" Shirou noted that he'd said "I" instead of "we," and his initial bad impression of the taller boy didn't get any better.

While wiping the blood from his dagger, Bri explained to the group that the Frontier Army's job was to, quite simply, protect the frontier of the kingdom, where humans tended to clash with "monsters," and prevent them from encroaching on the rest of the kingdom. That said, the normal army was responsible mostly for defense, guarding the town itself, and was typically only mobilized for large scale offensive operations like the sieging of enemy towns or castles. The reserve force, Crimson Moon, was a smaller, more mobile force of loosely organized individuals that formed small groups and went afield to scout, infiltrate, and attack targets of opportunity, making it less likely that the monsters could muster up a strong enough force to assault the town in the first place.

Bri offered a choice. Either they could join, as Crimson Moon Trainees, and be offered a signing bonus of ten silvers, apparently a form of currency which he said would be enough for them to live on for a while, or they could walk away and try to find some other job with nothing but the clothes on their back. Not much of a choice, really, Shirou thought as he watched Renji claim one of the red pouches on the counter that contained both the silvers as well as a small copper medallion portraying a crescent moon that Bri explained was a way to identify themselves as trainees. If they didn't accept, and walked away penniless, they would probably end up as slaves, or worse. One by one, the others went forward to collect their own sets, until only a few – Shirou, Shihoru, Moguzo, and Haruhiro – were left.

As Haruhiro and Moguzo stepped forward, Shirou nodded to himself. "If it means protecting others, then… I'll become a volunteer soldier," he muttered softly. This seemed to be enough to spur on Shihoru as well, and they claimed the last of the pouches.

"Well done! You're all Crimson Moon Trainees now!" Bri said with a smile. "Slay the monsters that threaten Altana, take the spoils, and sell them. Come back when you've gotten enough silver to all become full members, and work hard to become strong!"

Suddenly there was a dull thudding sound behind him that made Shirou spin around, where he saw Buzz-cut sitting on the floor with a shocked expression, and Renji standing over him from where he had obviously tripped him.

"Get up," Renji said coldly, and as Buzz-cut tried to scramble to his feet, Renji mercilessly shoved him to the ground again.

"What the hell are you doing, you bastard?!" Buzz-cut yelled, glaring up at the other muscular boy.

"When you first saw everyone else, you looked at me and thought, 'Which of us is the strongest amongst us?' I'm showing you that it's me. Now stand up."

Renji was waiting to attack the moment Buzz-cut tried to stand again, it was obvious to all the bystanders. Buzz-cut scrambled to dodge it, but before he could get enough distance, Renji swung in with a powerful punch – which was deflected by a boy Renji hadn't even spared a glance to before, a ginger kid with amber eyes that had stepped in between the two much taller, more muscular boys, and forced the punch to the side with his own forearm. Renji stared down at him appraisingly.

"Oh? You've got guts, kid, but you know now I'm going to have to make a lesson out of you too, right?"

Shirou stared back defiantly. "I've fought stronger foes than you before," he declared, and as he said it he knew it to be true – even if, at the moment, he couldn't actually recall who exactly it had been that he'd fought.

Without further words, Renji swung again with a right hook. Shirou raised his left forearm to block, letting instincts take over, but for some reason uncomfortable at the prospect of fighting unarmed. The punch from the much heavier boy impacted his guard and sent him stumbling back a few steps – If I'd had a sword, I could have better deflected it – and Renji was after him again before he had a chance to recover, coming in with a roundhouse kick. Shirou turned his stumble into a roll backwards, neatly avoiding it and coming back to his feet just as Renji jumped forward, thrusting out his knee midair towards Shirou's chest. With a thought, his od was circulating again, and instinctively his hands went out to his side to grasp handles of swords that didn't quite exist – but no, this wasn't a fight to the death, just a standoff with a bully, and just before he let his battle instincts take over completely and use his prana for projection, he instead used it for reinforcement – Renji's knee connected heavily with his body, but rather than the bone-crushing blow it was meant to be, it only managed to send him sliding back another few feet, where he immediately recovered and took up another fighting stance.

Renji looked at him, surprise clear on his face that his enemy was still standing, and seemingly unharmed, before suddenly completely relaxing. "You're pretty strong, kid. Shirou, was it? Join my team. You too," he said, gesturing at Buzz-cut where he'd been watching slightly slack jawed off to one side. "What's your name?"

"Ron," Buzz-cut growled as he stalked over to stand beside Renji, brushing against Shirou as he did. "You're pretty strong yourself. I guess I'll join you. And you," he said with a look of disdain towards the redhead, "I don't owe you anything. I would have been fine by myself, you got that?"

Renji glanced around the crowd, pointing at both a tall boy with black hair and glasses, as well as the smallest girl present, who looked to be under 4'9" in height. "You two look like you could be useful as well. I'll take you too."

"Adachi. Glad to be on board," Glasses introduced himself, as the small girl blushed and simply nodded, with a tiny "…aye" as she ran over to him as well. Renji turned and began to lead his party outside, but turned back when he realized Shirou wasn't with them.

"No," Shirou said simply as he looked around at who was left. Shihoru, Haruhiro, Yume, and Moguzo especially all looked uncertain and nervous after the brief fight. Ranta was clearly insecure as well, in his own way. It wouldn't be right to gather all the strongest in one party, and leave the weakest to fend for themselves. "Keep your party safe, Renji. I would rather work with them."

Renji snorted. "Your loss," he called back as he left without another backwards glance. He was followed by one of the other girls, an elegant looking young woman who Shirou heard introduce herself as Sassa and pledge that she would do anything if Renji would accept her to his group.

"Gah, I wanted to be a part of Team Renji too," Kikkawa moaned as Sassa ran out the door. "I bet they'd be invincible in a fight. Such a good party. Oh well, nothing for it I guess, but now I'm off to have a look around town. See ya!" He said as he boldly strode off out the door as well.

"A-are you alright?" Shihoru asked, after the pub was finally clear of Renji's party.

"It's alright, I guess," Shirou said with a wry smile, "I just can't really stand bullies like that. I tried, but I suppose if they all want to follow him anyways, there's nothing I can do about it. At least they should have enough strength among them that they won't die."

"I meant your chest!" Shihoru blurted out, looking flustered.

"Oh, that's fine too. I'm pretty tou-"

"Ah, that was awesome!" Ranta shouted, interrupting Shirou as he threw his arm around the other redhead like they were old friends. "Not as awesome as Lord Ranta, of course, but you'll get there someday with moves like that! Just you wait, maybe I'll even accept you into my own party if you're good enough!"

"You'd wanna work with Yume more'n all them muscly boys and pretty girls?" The country girl, apparently named Yume, pitched in while scratching her head.

"It's just... I want to help people," Shirou admitted. "I feel like I could help more people by staying with you all than I could with Renji, no matter how strong he is."

"So, the seven of us, then?" Manato added after a quick count of those remaining in the pub and coming up to shake Shirou's hand. "A bit large for a party, based on what Bri said, but there's safety in numbers, right?"

Shirou noted the surprised but grateful look Haruhiro and Moguzo shot Manato at being included in the count, as though they had expected to be left behind.

He nodded. "I look forward to working with you all.

This is my first attempt at writing something on here, or anywhere at all, really. Hope you enjoy, and I'd appreciate any reviews.